Category: Local Case Studies

In this fourth and final post of the history of Rowhedge in the 19th century I’ll be focusing primarily on school life and the strength of the villagers as they fought off all on-comers in their attempts to bring a degree of drainage and sanitation to the village – a situation described as ‘a… Read more »

A Community Grows In his essay ‘Rough Days at Rowhedge’,[1] Hervey Benham characterises the village as a community of disorganised, barbarous criminals. The fishermen (who he refers to as ‘hairy old amphibians’[2] ), standing in a bath of beer on the pub floor, their ‘wretched’ wives beside them, boys running from pub to pub… Read more »

In this second part of the life and work of the men of Rowhedge, we pick up their story around 1870; times were changing, and alternative sources of income were opening up. There had been a small shipbuilding enterprise in the village for centuries, but in the 1860s this became a far larger concern and… Read more »

Like Father, like Son In 1850, Rowhedge was, as it had been for generations, a fishing village. The tiny village, built on the waterfront, was a hive of activity with boats moored up being prepared for work and fisherman leaving for sea. The river was the lifeblood of a community built around one specific trade.… Read more »

Rowhedge Rowhedge was, and still is, a small village on the banks of the River Colne in Essex. It is a place where for generations the men worked as fishermen, while the women stayed at home, holding together a family, a home, and in many cases also working. That it became a focus for… Read more »